Home Sweet Home
by KJ
Summary: The missing rangers finally return back to Earth from their journey


**Disclaimer**: Jordan Cavanaugh makes a very brief appearance and that character is from Crossing Jordan, and belongs to Tim Kring and NBC Universal. Power Rangers stuff still belongs to Saban and Disney, while everything else belongs to me.

**Authors Notes:** This story is the next in the Ranger Scrolls series. It is kind of the third part in a three part story, follolwing "Return of the Empire" and "Seeing Double".

Power Rangers  
"Home Sweet Home"

Rocky DeSantos and Kimberly Heart sat on the couch of Kim's four bedroom apartment sulking in front of the television. Sulking was all the duo did anymore, as it had been almost a month since they had seen their significant others, and both were presumed dead.

Both had disappeared a few days into the mission they left them there for, along with three of the Astro Rangers. They were always afraid that they had died, that the Astro Megaship had been destroyed when a nearby planet had exploded. But everyone had promised to try and stay hopeful while other rangers and allies in the galaxy searched for them.

After their disappearance, Rocky started staying in his friend's apartment, sleeping in his girlfriend's bed. He couldn't bare to be by himself at night, sleeping in the dorm room he shared with Tommy. The first week went by, and he and Kim tried to smile and keep it together but it was hard.

At the end of the first week, they finally received word from the rescue teams. They had searched all the nearby galaxy's with no luck. The only conclusion they could come up with was that the ship was destroyed. Everything the planet touched was incinerated, so they didn't even have anything left of the ship or the rangers to bring back to Earth. What made it even more painful is that the fact that they found out that their friends had become the punch line to some sort of intergalactic joke. It went something along the lines of the only way to destroy a ranger was to take yourself out in the process.

The rangers had to take some time to let this sink in. Kim and Rocky became depressed, and Jason took it upon himself to hold himself together for the team. Not that he didn't want to collapse on the inside as well, but if all three senior rangers fell apart the world was doomed. Jason kept himself busy the next week by trying to figure out how to handle the situation along with Billy.

They finally came up with a solution. Kim and Rocky weren't thrilled about it, but they had no choice. They had to explain what happened to the five rangers that disappeared. As of that moment, noone suspected anything, but they would have to let everyone in on the truth as it wasn't fair. The only reason noone suspected a thing was because Billy put Carri's robot back together and created one for Tommy, only letting them out of the Command Chamber long enough to go to their classes.

He had done this when they went on the mission so they wouldn't get in trouble in school while they were gone, and he left the robots in place so they wouldn't suspect anything while they figured out what to do. Billy didn't have to worry about Ashley and TJ. They both had already made up excuses to their families about why they were never in town and hardly reachable.

The plan Billy and Jason had come up with involved having the Tommy and Carri robots disappear for a few days. Then they were going to have Trey admit to the world that they, along with Ashley, TJ and Andros, were all power rangers and had all been killed on a mission to protect the planet. There was no good cover for what happened to them, and they felt that the world should know who their protectors were, who was out there dying for them.

That was a little over a week ago. They were going to try and wait another week or so before putting their plan into action. It was killing Rocky and Kim to know that those robots were running around in their classes, but they agreed with the logic. A few months ago Carri had been involved in apprehending a serial killer. Without a lawyer present, the man confessed to everything, only to later say it wasn't fair and he was innocent. Because of this change of heart, it was near the end of February before the case was ready to go to court. The district attorney was pretty sure it was going to be an easy case to win, but they needed Carri to testify. The case was finally going to court this week, so they had prepped the Carribot to testify. It was what Carri would have wanted, to see this thing through and the criminal put behind bars.

Rocky leaned his head back on the couch pillow and closed his eyes. He didn't know why he closed his eyes. Every time he did all he could think about was her. And he would replay the last things he ever heard from her, the transmission that told them that things had gone so terribly wrong.

After they found out they were dead, Rocky could do nothing but blame himself. He shouldn't have let her go, he should have gone with her, he should have done something. It didn't help him that to some extent, Carri's brother had blamed him as well. Josh was smart, and it didn't take him long to figure out something was wrong when newscasts from Angel Grove were coming in, and there were two pink rangers but no yellow. He had called a week after they disappeared and Rocky spoke with him, and told him there was nothing to worry about, that they were just on a mission elsewhere and would be home soon.

Two weeks went by and there was still no sign of a yellow ranger in Angel Grove. Josh called Rocky back asking what was going on. Rocky told him the story, pausing only to take deep breaths to hold himself together. When he was finished there was silence as Josh let the words sink in. After a moment, Josh swore at him. Then went on to remind him that he was supposed to protect her, yet he let her die. Rocky held back tears until he hung up the phone, then he let them fall freely. Maybe Josh was right. Maybe it was his fault.

Kim watched as Rocky laid back and closed his eyes. She wasn't sure if he was going to sleep or not. She doubted it, as neither one of them had been able to sleep in almost a month. A tear slid down Kim's face as she once again thought about what Tommy's last moments were like. She quickly brushed it away and tried to force herself to not think about it.

It was hard, as it was all anyone in the ranger community had thought about. They had heard from former rangers who were slowly hearing the news. Kat had visited a few times. On the last trip she wanted some of Carri's things, but Rocky had refused to let her touch them. He wasn't ready to part with the few pieces of her he had left.

Kat wasn't the only former ranger who had dropped by. Billy had teleported Adam over several times so that he could try and console his best friend. Aisha was teleported twice from Africa to spend some time with Kim. Even Tanya had come by once to extend her condolences. Zack and Trini had frequently been in and out of the Command Chamber, and had taken the others to dinner a few times.

They had received transmissions from across the galaxy, including Dulcea on Phaedos and the Aquatarian Rangers, who were thinking about joining Trey when he made his speech. But none of it was enough. It didn't matter how many of their friends and former rangers tried to make them feel better. Nothing could dull the pain of losing the people they loved most in the world.

Kim turned back toward the television. It was slightly after midnight and nothing was on. She hit the power button and then allowed the remote to fall to the floor with a thud. Kim tapped Rocky on the shoulder and he opened his eyes and looked at her. "I'm going to bed.", she said simply

Rocky nodded. It was probably time for him to try and get some sleep too. Not like he would, he hadn't in weeks what would make this night any different. He sighed as he stood up and followed Kim back toward the bedrooms.

* * *

Two hours after the red and pink Ninja Zeo rangers went to bed a figure teleported into the living room, duffle bag in hand. She looked at the clock on the wall, which read 2:12 am. She was happy to be home, and happy to be getting to sleep in her own bed. Those beds on the megaship weren't the most comfortable, and she didn't know how the Astro rangers dealt with them on a regular basis. 

Carri Hillard walked into her bedroom and opened the door. She noticed a male figure laying in her bed. She assumed it was Rocky as he was the only male she knew who she would allow in her bed. She quietly closed the door and set the duffle bag down before heading to her dresser to change clothes.

The first thing she did was kick her shoes off. She cringed as they hit the wall with a thud. She turned to see if Rocky noticed before she undressed.

Rocky heard something and he opened his eyes. He was half asleep as he tried to adjust his vision to the image before him. What he thought he saw was a silhouette of Carri undressing. He smiled as it wasn't the first time he had imagined her standing there. "Hey.", he whispered. He wasn't sure if he spoke in his head or out loud. It didn't really matter, she was only a figment of his imagination. Sometimes when he saw her standing there he would pretend to talk to her. And sometimes she would pretend to talk back. He knew it wasn't worth anything, but for that brief second it would make him feel whole again.

"Hey.", she whispered back as she finished undressing. "Sorry to wake you."

"It's ok.", he said with a smile. His eyes fluttered shut as he looked. He tried hard to keep them open to savor the fantasy.

Carri went through her dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of short shorts and slipped them on, then proceeded to look for a spaghetti strap to sleep in. "You wouldn't believe the adventure we had."

Rocky's eyes opened as she spoke again. It was odd, usually when he fantasized about her being there it was just her saying hello.

"We met ourselves and my older self was fighting Callisto - go figure right? Oh and I think we destroyed the Machine Empire.", she said jumping around in the story. "I guess I can give you all the details in the morning. Too much to discuss now and I'm tired.", she said as she found a top and went to slip it over her head.

Something was definitely not right as he never fantasized about her talking about Callisto or the Machine Empire. These are things he wouldn't want to hear coming out of her mouth. These are the things that got her killed, that took her away from him. Rocky sat straight up in the bed and rubbed his eyes. "Carri?", he questioned as he focused

"Yeah?", she asked straightening out her shirt and looking at him

Rocky jumped off the bed and over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and startling her a little bit.

"What's going on?", she asked. He was acting a bit weird even for him.

"Is it really you?", he asked as she nodded, looking at him like he was crazy. He threw his arms around her and held her tightly not wanting to let go.

"Ok, Rocky.", she said trying to push him back, but he would not budge. "Sheesh I've only been gone a week and you're acting like I've been lost at sea or something."

Rocky pulled away and put her face in his hands. "A week? It's been a month. We thought you were dead. Everyone said that the ship had been destroyed when the planet blew up."

"A month?", she repeated as she put her hands on top of his. He nodded before leaning in and giving her a passionate kiss. She looked at him, still in shock as he pulled away. Andros had said that he couldn't be sure how many days in the future Billy had sent them. From the condition of the planet it couldn't have been too long. Of course dimensional travel wasn't an exact science, and Andros estimated that Billy had probably sent them three or four days past the explosion. But a month? They had no idea.

Rocky smiled at her and left his hands on her face for a few more seconds, before letting his hands fall and allowing his left hand to grasp her right hand. He said nothing as he led her out into the hallway, then started banging on everyone's doors yelling for them to wake up.

Jason was the first to fling his door open. "What's going on?", he grumbled as he made his way out into the hallway. Once he adjusted to the light, he realized who was standing there. "Carri?", he whispered as he went and wrapped his arms around her

She returned the hug and out of the corner of her eye she caught Kim coming out of her room. She smiled at Jason as he stepped back, before turning to look at Kim. "Hey Kim.", she greeted

Kim threw her arms around her friend. "We thought you were dead. I can't believe..." her voice trailed off as tears of joy started to fall down her cheeks. "And Tommy?", she asked backing off to give her some space

"He's fine. He's probably at the dorm.", Carri replied

Billy slowly walked out of his room as he was putting on his glasses. He was just as surprised as everyone else to see who was standing there. He went over and gave her a hug. "What happened?", he asked looking at her

"It's a long story.", Carri said smiling at him. "Maybe I should get Tommy to help me tell it." With that, she pulled her communicator up to her mouth. "Tommy?", she called

"Go ahead.", Tommy said, the irritation clear in his voice. He had just fallen asleep when she paged him

"There's an emergency at the apartment.", Carri replied

"On my way.", he said. A few seconds later white light filled the hallway and Tommy appeared.

Kim's tears came faster as she threw her arms around her boyfriend. "I can't believe it's really you.", she whispered

"I know we were gone a bit longer than expected. But I was going to come by in the morning.", Tommy said as he held his girlfriend tightly

Carri looked over at him. "We were gone a month."

"That's impossible.", Tommy said. He watched Carri shoot him a look. "Well not impossible but... a month?"

"Why don't we go sit in the living room and we can discuss what happened.", Billy suggested as he started to lead the others out

Jason followed Billy out. Rocky put his arm around Carri's waist and led her to the couch, sitting down and pulling her on top of him. Kim let go of Tommy and he pulled her into a kiss before they walked out into the living room and sat on the couch as well.

"We know you destroyed the Machine Empire. And we know the planet exploded.", Jason started looking at his two friends. "What we don't know... what doesn't make any sense... is how did you survive?"

Carri looked down at Tommy and let him start the story. "All the bursts of energy created a wormhole around us, which we fell through. If not for that we would have been dead."

"They led us to an alternate dimension, where older versions of ourselves helped us find our way back.", Carri continued leaving out the details of their adventure. She wasn't sure what to say about that or even or where to start.

As they spoke Rocky absentmindedly rubbed his hand under her shirt on her bare back. As he slid his hand up and down he found a lump on her skin. He lifted up her top enough to reveal a long scar that hadn't healed yet and the remnants of some nasty bruises. "What happened to you?", he asked

Carri could hear the concern in his voice, and there was even a touch of anger as she assumed he wanted revenge on whoever did this. She sighed as she told him. He wasn't going to want to hear it but she wasn't going to lie. "I have a few scars and some bruises left on my body from where Callisto beat and tortured me in the other dimension. Don't worry, they'll disappear in a few days."

Carri could feel Rocky's body tense under her. She was right, he didn't need to hear that. "I'm sorry.", he spoke putting his arms around her. "How did that happen?", he asked. He thought for a moment. "I just wished I could have helped...", he said then he stopped himself leaving it at that. He wanted to say help defend and protect you, help you by holding you close and never letting anything evil near you again. But he knew better than to express that aloud. She was too independent to ever allow any of that.

"We were ambushed.", Tommy started to explain. "At her older self's home.", he added. He pulled Kim close before continuing the story. "It took nine rangers and some courage on Carri's part to make sure everyone was safe and that Callisto was leaving defeated."

Jason looked at his friends. He was angry, Callisto always made him angry. And he knew what it was like to be tortured by her. The things that she did to him... and she only hated him. She loathed Carri, he couldn't imagine what she went through. "I guess the most important thing is that everyone came back alive.", he said. And where Callisto was concerned, sometimes that was all you could hope for.

"Other than that the dimensional travel wasn't that interesting.", Carri said trying to shift the gears of the conversation. She leaned back into Rocky and looked back at him, before glancing at Kim, Jason and Billy. "What happened here?"

"We've been fighting with Cassie and Carlos.", Jason informed her. "It's been shaky at times, but LA's still here so we couldn't have done that bad."

"They're good rangers.", Rocky added. "We just weren't a fully functional team."

"Carlos has been hanging around here on the weekends, and playing soccer with your friend Matt.", Kim said

Carri smiled. "Cool.", she replied

"Any important changes with Divatox or Rita and Zedd?", asked Tommy. He wanted to know what he missed as the team's leader, to him that was most important.

"They perfected those hybrids.", Jason said. He laughed. "They're one third puddy, one third tenga and one third piranhatron."

"But in all seriousness they're pretty tough.", Kim said looking over at Jason. She knew he was still amused by these creatures, but they had thrown them around once or twice and they're nothing to laugh about.

"Other than that not much has changed. Trey has been keeping an eye on Astronema for us. She hasn't made any major moves since you guys have been gone.", Rocky said looking over at Tommy

"That's good to know.", Tommy replied. "What about us? Where does everyone think we've been?"

"Here.", Billy said simply. "We substituted robots in for you at USC and they've been attending your classes in your place. Nobody suspected a thing."

"Not even our families?", Carri questioned raising an eyebrow

Billy shook his head no. Rocky cleared his throat and Carri turned toward him. "Josh knows. He suspected something was wrong when the yellow ranger was gone. He was waiting for me to tell your parents."

Carri sighed. "Shit.", she swore. That was the last thing she needed after her week was a lecture from her brother. He would be excited to know she was alive, but he was not going to be happy about the whole thing.

"Any schedule things we need to know about? Like class things?", Tommy asked

Billy thought for a moment. "I think both of you have tests coming up, but no papers or projects for another few weeks. Your notes and books are in the Command Chamber, I'll get those for you in the morning."

Rocky squeezed Carri lightly and she gave him her attention. "You have a lunch with Jordan today after your classes. She'll be here around one fifteen, and you're driving to the place you pick."

"Jordan?", Carri questioned. "Jordan Cavanaugh?", she asked. Rocky looked at her and nodded. "But she wasn't coming back to LA until..." Carri's eyes widened as she jumped up out of a surprised Rocky's grip and turned to look at him. "That makes tomorrow the start of the trial.", she said slightly panicked. Rocky nodded. "Damn the DA must be going crazy by now."

"Relax.", Rocky assured her motioning for her to come sit. She didn't so he continued speaking. "The Carribot talked to the DA. He doesn't suspect a thing. He's anxious and waiting to get this done and over with."

The others could see her body relax as she went back to sitting in Rocky's lap. He smiled and draped his arms back around her midsection as the conversation continued.

The rangers and Billy sat in the living room of the apartment for another half hour or so before everyone decided it was time for bed. They were all getting tired, and most of them had classes in the morning. Tommy and Rocky stayed over as everyone went into the bedrooms and back to sleep.

* * *

The following afternoon Tommy met with Kim after classes so that they could go together to have lunch. He approached her and put his hand on her midsection, leaning in for a kiss, before slipping his hand down to grip hers. She squeezed it tightly like she was afraid to let go. 

Tommy didn't know what to say. He couldn't imagine what she and the others had gone through in the last month. For lack of knowing what to say, he made small talk. "I talked to Billy a little while ago.", he started smiling at her. "He said Andros collected all his rangers and they already left for a mission. He said that Cassie and Carlos were relieved to know that everyone was ok."

"That's good.", Kim commented. "Trey was having a hard time keeping up with Astronema, they needed a team of rangers to stay on her trail."

"Did you guys have fun with Cassie and Carlos?"

Kim shrugged her shoulders in response. "They were nice enough.", she said. She thought for a moment before she felt like she had to add something more. "I mean we all got along well. Cassie and I were friends, but it wasn't like having Carri around. And Carlos... he's nice too but... I just missed you."

Tommy smiled down at her. He wanted to try and comfort her but he didn't know what to say. It's not like he could say I know or I understand because he truly didn't. He was alive and well and he knew Kim was alive and well and as far as he was concerned he was gone a week. "I wish it hadn't gone down like that.", he finally said.

"Me too.", Kim replied. "I'm just grateful you're all alive. Stuff happens but... the mission was a success, you were saved... it's nobody's fault that you were sent back much later that you thought. It was just hard."

"Well," Tommy started thinking of what to say next, "hopefully we can put this all behind us and get everything back to normal."

"We will.", Kim said as she smiled at him. "It is going to be different now though because some of us have come to grips with how dangerous being a power ranger really is."

Tommy looked at her oddly. He thought they all knew the dangers, knew that they could die protecting the planet. He knew Kim must have picked up on his face because she went on to elaborate. "We all knew taking the job we could die. We've probably all been almost dead more times than we care to remember. But you know, this was different. You guys were dead. To us at least. We've always pulled through and that was reality slapping us in the face."

"The job is tough. But I think if we had died out there, we all would have been ok because it was for a good cause.", Tommy said. Kim nodded in agreement, because as many times as she hated him for dying on her she couldn't help but think that he had died as a ranger, saving the Earth from the Machine Empire's return. Tommy continued speaking. "With everything going on right now, it's just going to get tougher. And if Astronema and Dark Specter succeed... well they won't show us mercy. We would have been better off dying in the explosion."

"I'm not worried about that.", Kim said, some cheerfulness showing in her voice.

"Oh?", Tommy asked, curious about her change in attitude

"I've never once thought Astronema would succeed.", she explained smiling at him. "We are the greatest rangers ever and she doesn't stand a chance."

Tommy laughed, grateful that she was starting to sound ok with it all. He pulled her into him and smiled. "So where do you want to go eat?"

Kim grinned at him as she led him off in the direction of the café for lunch.

* * *

Carri sat at a table eating lunch with the woman who was a medical examiner from Boston. She had some phone conversations with her since December, but this was the first time she had seen her since they caught the killer. 

They spent most of the time chatting about random things, but as the meal finished up Jordan switched topics to the upcoming trial. "So, you nervous?", she asked

"About the trial?", Carri asked. Jordan shook her head yes. "Not at all. I'm ready to put this bastard behind bars."

"Have you ever testified for anything before?", Jordan asked. To her, testifying had become routine, as she had done it for dozens of other murder cases. To Carri it was probably something new.

Carri shook her head no. "How hard could it be? I just get up there and tell the truth."

"The defense may be brutal.", Jordan warned

Carri grinned at her. "Tell them to bring it.", she said. Carri had never backed down from anybody in her life, and she wasn't about to let a measly defense attorney push her around.

Jordan laughed at Carri's attitude. She couldn't help but think about how much Carri reminded her of herself when she was that age. Jordan smiled. Who was she kidding. She was still Ms. Independent, stay out of my way, nobody scares me. "This should be open and shut. I don't know how it got so scrambled in the first place."

"Because they let the killer go from guilty I did it here's the evidence to wait I think I'm really innocent.", Carri replied rolling her eyes

"Yeah, well, got to love the American legal system.", Jordan said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as well. "Any other country they would have convicted and fried him by now. Here we'll give him the benefit of the doubt if he says he changed his mind, that he is innocent."

"In an under pressure moment of insanity I copped to all the murders. Puh-leese.", Carri said shaking her head. She was all about guilty until proven innocent, but not guilty pretending to be innocent so maybe a jury will for sorry for him and not convict so he can go on living his miserable little life. The DA said the entire thing was pointless, but you can't deny a man his right to a fair trial.

Jordan smiled at her as the waiter came and set the check down on the table. Carri went to grab it but Jordan got to it first. "This one's on me.", she assured her

"Are you sure?", Carri asked

Jordan nodded and slipped a few bills on the table. The two girls finished chatting and headed outside. They climbed into Carri's car and Carri drove them back to Jordan's hotel. The older woman exited the car and said goodbye. Carri took off and headed back to her apartment. She parked and climbed out of the car, off in her own little world. The people around her caught her attention as they started yelling and running.

Carri stopped and turned. "I knew it was you. Not many are ugly enough to scare away a crowd."

Goldar growled and Rito looked at her scratching his head. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Eh.", she said smiling and shrugging her shoulders. "If I died, who would be left to give you your ass kicking?", she asked as she glanced around to make sure nobody was around. "It's morphin time!"

The yellow ranger stood there and ran to attack as Rito and Goldar called for some hybrids to jump in her way. She called on her daggers to fight but they were everywhere. Suddenly pink arrows flew through the air knocking several of the hybrids back. "Looks like you could use some help.", Kim said as she and Tommy teleported down

"Let's take these guys out. I want my crack at Rito and Goldar.", Carri said twirling her daggers in her hand

"Sounds like a good plan to me.", Tommy replied as the trio started fighting

A few minutes later there was a black streak flying into the middle of the fight, followed by the Black Ninja Zeo ranger. "You guys weren't going to leave me out of all the fun were you?", he asked

Tommy smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it bro."

The four rangers fought hard together for a while. Eventually the fifth and final ranger teleported in, and the team worked together to defeat the hybrids. They were tough, but after a while the Ninja Zeo team stood triumphant. "Your turn.", Carri said, tightening her grip on her daggers as she eyed Goldar and Rito

Goldar and Rito looked at all the rangers then they took off. Kim made a face. "You think we scare them?"

Tommy shook his head no. "Something's not right about this."

"Maybe we should go back to the Command Chamber and see what Billy knows.", Jason suggested. Tommy nodded and the rangers quickly teleported themselves to the Command Chamber.

* * *

When they got there, Billy and Trini stood waiting for them. 

"What's going on?", asked Rocky as all of the rangers looked at the duo, pulling their helmets off.

"We think that Rito and Goldar were sent down as some sort of distraction.", Billy explained. He glanced down at Trini as if to tell her to continue.

Trini turned down to the console and keyed a few buttons, pulling a map of Angel Grove up on screen. A little red dot appeared on the map. "We picked up a piranhatron here in Angel Grove.", Trini started

"That's near the Youth Center.", Jason pointed out, saying aloud what they were all thinking. "Is everyone at the Youth Center alright?", he added concerned for his girlfriend's safety

"For now.", Trini replied simply

"What's that supposed to mean?", asked Jason

"It appears as though the piranhatron may have left a detonator somewhere in the vicinity of the Youth Center.", Billy explained

"So then we need to get down there and look for it.", Rocky said as the others nodded

"Do we have any idea what we are looking for?", Kim asked

Trini shook her head no. "All we know is we've picked up some strange readings and the only thing it could be is a detonator."

"It makes sense.", Carri said looking at her fellow rangers. "The Youth Center is the hang out of at least nine rangers. Destroying it would be hard on us. Not to mention... not to mention Emily works there."

Jason's fists clinched at the thought of Divatox going specifically after the place his girlfriend worked. If she wanted to piss them off, if she wanted to piss him off, well she had done it. "Let's go find the detonator.", he growled

Tommy nodded and Billy went to get him the device he needed to scan for a detonator. "Take this. I calibrated it to look for the readings the sensors picked up."

Tommy took the device and stuck it into his belt. "Back to action!", he yelled as the rangers disappeared down to the Youth Center

* * *

A few seconds later the rangers were standing outside of the hang out where most of them practically grew up. 

"Let's split up and hurry. Look for anything suspicious.", Tommy said pulling the device out of his belt. He may be able to find it quickly but he may not. It would be better for them to all be looking.

Before the rangers could separate, they were interrupted. "Hey rangers, what do you think your doing?", a voice asked. The team spun around to see Elgar standing there along with a giant bug eyed looking creature, holding what appeared to be a big knife and fork. "Ok Amphibitor let's get 'em.", Rito ordered

Amphibitor looked at the rangers and fired, sending them all flying backwards. The rangers looked at each other as they pulled themselves to their feet. They certainly didn't have time for this. "Power daggers!" Carri cried leaping toward the monster

"Power axe!", Jason yelled following suite

Tommy watched as two of his teammates were quick to attack the monster. He looked over at Rocky. "You help hold the monster off, we'll look for the detonator."

Rocky nodded and called for his lance, joining his teammates. Tommy and Kim looked at each other and took off, following the signal coming from the device Billy gave them. "It looks like it's in this direction." Tommy said pointing toward the back of the building

"Let's go.", Kim said as they headed off. Before they got much farther, Elgar appeared in front of them.

"You guys can't miss the party.", he said looking at them

"I'll take care of him, you find the detonator.", Kim said looking over at Tommy. Tommy nodded as Kim called for her Power Bow, attacking Elgar.

As soon as Kim had Elgar distracted, Tommy took off. He ran around to the back of the building where Ernie had a few outdoor tables set up. The patrons who were sitting outside looked at the white ranger curiously. Tommy ignored them and spun around in a circle with the device. He had a direction and before he could act, he was surrounded by hybrids. "Now is not the time for this.", he muttered. "Power sword!", he cried as the weapon appeared in his hands.

Tommy started to fight the hybrids as the people in the Youth Center started screaming and taking off. Most of them went around to the front of the building, until one came back yelling about Elgar and Amphibitor. Everyone then started running into the building for protection. Tommy cursed under his breath. Right now that may not have been the safest place for them to go.

He tried to fight the hybrids as quickly as possible. A few minutes later he found himself standing alone in the back of the Youth Center. He quickly went back to the device to look for the detonator. Upon scanning, he realized that the detonator was not in the back of the building, but inside of the building.

The white ranger threw the door open and ran inside. He followed device toward the counter. He noticed the frightened look he got from Emily when he walked in, but he brushed it off. He realized what was out of place as the device was pointing him toward a strange looking flower in a pot on the counter.

As he ran over to the detonator, several piranhatrons jumped in front of him. He flung a few out of the way, then jumped out of reach of some of the other ones reaching for the detonator before teleporting off. He arrived on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, quickly throwing the detonator out into the ocean. He barely made it as it exploded when it hit the water.

Quickly he teleported back to the inside of the Youth Center. The piranhatrons were gone, so he headed out back and went around to look for Kim and Elgar. She seemed to be handling him well, and after Kim got a good kick in Tommy surprised Elgar by hitting him from behind.

Elgar looked up to see the white ranger standing there, as well as the building. He knew the detonator should have gone off by now. "This can't be good.", Elgar said as he teleported off

"Did you get the detonator?", Kim asked

Tommy nodded. "Now let's go help the others." With that, the two rangers ran off toward the front of the Youth Center. They got there just in time to see all three rangers fly backwards and hit the ground. They quickly got back up and launched another round of attacks.

Kim launched an attack with her bow, followed quickly by Tommy as they joined the others and stood facing the monster.

"Shall we?", Carri asked spinning her daggers and looking toward the other rangers

"Let's finish this guy off.", Rocky replied as they one at a time went to form their Power Blaster They quickly fired the blaster, knocking Amphibitor off of his feet.

Amphibitor slowly stood back up. "You'll have to do better than that rangers.", he said firing at them

"Do we have anything better than that?", asked Jason

"I don't know.", Tommy replied pulling his communicator to his mouth. "Billy?"

"I just finished the Zeo Power Cannon. Call for that, it should take him down.", Billy suggested

"Right.", Tommy replied

All five of the rangers jumped up and went to call for the cannon, but Amphibitor came running at them. They had to go back to their power weapons and attack him for a few minutes, throwing him back so they could regroup and call for the cannon. "We need the Zeo Power Cannon now!", Tommy yelled

The cannon fell into the hands of the five rangers. They quickly got it ready and simultaneously yelled "Fire!".

The blast from the cannon surprised not only Amphibitor, but the rangers as well as they watched him explode and fall to the ground. "That takes care of that.", Carri commented

They watched as the monster started to grow. "Come on, you know better than that. You've been out of the game too long.", Kim said looking up at the monster

"Yeah, well, I was just hoping.", Carri replied

"We need Ninja Zeo Zord power now!", Tommy yelled. They watched as the five Ninja Zeo Zords came barreling toward them, then the rangers each jumped into their respective zords.

The rangers spent a few minutes in their individual zords trying to fight off Amphibitor. The Falcon Zord ran in as the Cougar and Panther Zords were gripped tightly on Amphibitor. The Cougar and Panther Zords let go just in time for the Falcon to fire. Amphibitor straggled backwards as the rangers brought their zords together. They wasted no time calling on the full power of the Megazord and taking out Amphibitor for good.

* * *

The Ninja Zeo team teleported themselves back to the Command Chamber. Billy and Trini stood there smiling at them. "I take it we did good?", asked Rocky 

"The detonator exploded over the ocean, and the monster is destroyed. All in all, it looks like a good day.", Trini replied

"So then should we get back to where we were before this madness started?", asked Kim

"Sounds like a plan to me.", Tommy replied

Jason shook his head no. "I think I'm going to go back down to Angel Grove. I want to make sure Emily's doing alright after all that happened."

"Ok bro.", Tommy said smiling at him

Trini took Billy's hand, squeezing it as she looked over at the others. "I have an idea.", she said. "Why don't we all get together tonight for dinner."

"Sounds like fun.", Carri replied with a smile

Trini smiled back. "And by all I do mean all. There are a lot of former rangers that were worried about you guys.", she said looking up to Billy for approval. Billy nodded his head yes.

"Getting all the rangers together would be fun.", Kim said grinning. Even though they had seen some of the former rangers recently, it would be nice to see them under better circumstances. Kim looked over at Jason, who was making a face. "Emily could come I'm sure. She's not a ranger but she knows all about us so it would be alright.", Kim said. As she finished speaking she looked over at the other rangers, as if she was looking for their approval.

They all nodded and turned to Jason who smiled at them. "Thanks guys, I'll let her know."

"My parents are out of town on business. We could probably use their house as long as we cleaned up.", Trini suggested

"Alright let's get a hold of everybody and see what we can do.", Tommy said with a smile as all the rangers started to come up with ideas

* * *

A few hours went by, and the active rangers found themselves standing in the Kwan's living room along with Trini and Emily. They had just finished putting out the food they had catered and were waiting for Billy to teleport everyone in. It had been an awkward dinner time, and an awkward time in general for some of the rangers but they were all excited to come and hang out. 

Slowly the other rangers started trickling in. Zack was the first to arrive, followed by Aisha. Then Adam and Tanya were teleported in. As Adam and Tanya arrived, there was a knock at the door. Trini went to open it and greeted Kat. Kat immediately went to throw her arms around her cousin, before greeting some of the other past and present rangers.

Billy teleported himself back in and their dinner party started. Everyone filled their plates with food and broke off. The girls were the first to start gravitating toward each other. Carri sat down on the couch and was joined by Kat. Tanya came over to sit with them, as she was exited to see Kat since it had been a long time. Jason was goofing around with the boys so Emily went to visit with Carri. Kim and Aisha started gossiping before noticing the other girls coming together around the couch, and headed in their direction before being joined by Trini.

Kim looked around at all the girls and smiled. "This is awesome, all the ranger girls being in the same place at the same time.", she said smiling at them. "And we even have an honorary member.", she added looking over at Emily. Emily smiled at Kim as her way of saying thanks.

"It's amazing what you've been through the last month.", Aisha said smiling at Carri

"Week.", she corrected smiling back. "It was a month to you, but a week to us. Dimensional travel can be tricky."

"Were you afraid?", Tanya asked

"Nope.", Carri replied smiling at her. "I mean it was kind of scary, but you guys know how it is. As rangers you just tough it up and press on."

"I don't know about that.", Kim replied. She smiled over at her friend. "Trust me, being a ranger is a lot tougher now that it ever was before."

"Maybe. But I'm sure any of you would have been fine.", Carri said

Kim smiled but said nothing. Carri could say that all she wanted to, but none of the other females in that room had been through half the stuff they had. Not that they weren't fantastic rangers, she just didn't know if they'd be at the same level as them if they were put in their shoes. "Anyway, how is everybody doing?", she asked quickly changing the subject

"My album is finally coming out.", Tanya told them. It was coming out for the last year, but the people she worked with kept wanting to go back and rewrite lyrics, and edit songs. They wanted it to be perfect. It was now two years perfect and they were distributing her first single out to the radio stations. They all had their fingers crossed, noone was sure how it was going to go. But Tanya was optimistic.

"Tanya that's great!", Kat exclaimed. She knew her friend had gotten frustrated with her record company and their efforts to make the "perfect" album. She wasn't sure what that was, but she knew Tanya had it.

"I finally got all the paperwork through to open my own zoological research post.", Aisha said excitedly. "I know this guy who's an official zoologist, so he is going to work for me and be in charge of the research. I'm going to learn from him while finishing school. It's awesome, I finally get the equipment needed to help and the local college is going to give us grants for our research."

The other women smiled as they could see how Aisha was overflowing with enthusiasm. "I'm happy for you.", Kim was the first to speak, smiling at her old friend

"Yes, I know how much those animals mean to you.", Kat chimed in

"Thanks guys.", she said still beaming

The conversation silenced for a few minutes before Kat smiled and started it again. "There must be other things going on. What about guys? Anything new?"

Carri grinned as she sat back. Most of them had been in the same relationships for a while now, so she figured the only reason Kat brought up the subject was to talk about Chris. "We're still with the crazy ranger boys.", Carri joked pointing first to herself, Kim and Emily, then back to the three male rangers who where busy goofing around with the other guys

The girls laughed. "They are worth it though.", Emily said with a smile. "Most of the time."

"I donno. Those two got the sensible ones.", Carri grinned, gesturing toward Tanya and Trini

Tanya smiled. "Well even Adam can be a handful sometimes.", she said getting another round of laughter from the girls.

"I didn't realize that everybody was dating a ranger.", Aisha said smiling at them

"Well Zack's still available.", Kim pointed out. "And there's three new ranger guys you could pick from. Well maybe two. I think the new red ranger has interest in the yellow ranger. And the other two boys are a year younger. So maybe just Zack.", Kim finished. She caught Carri's eye, and Carri smiled at her. She would have to remember to tell her friend later about her confrontation with Andros on the megaship.

Aisha laughed. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't need a ranger boy.", she said

"Oh? Don't tell me you have a man in Africa you're keeping from me.", Kim said raising an eyebrow and looking at her friend

"Of course not. Not now anyway.", Aisha replied. She looked at Kim who shot her a look and both girls giggled. Aisha turned her attention toward Kat. "What about you? Interested in Zack?"

"No. Actually I have my own non-ranger boy.", Kat replied smiling

"Now you know you have to spill it.", Aisha said smiling back at her old teammate

Kat sat up and took a breath before telling them all about Chris.

On the other side of the room, the boys had goofing off circle rather than a gossip circle. They didn't spend much time obsessing over catching up as they did enjoying each other's company.

"What do you think they're talking about over there?", Adam asked aloud after the second time the girls erupted with laughter

"Who knows.", Zack replied

Jason made a face. "Knowing them, running their mouths about us."

Rocky laughed. He had enough sisters to know that even the littlest ones gossiped about boys. And just because they were rangers, didn't make them any different. "Probably.", he said backing Jason's suspicions

Tommy was quietly thinking as the other ranger boys were talking. It had been a long time since all the male rangers had been in the same room together. He glanced out in the backyard. "Let's go outside.", he suggested

"For what?" asked Adam

"To spar.", he replied

Rocky made a face. "I don't think anyone brought a change of clothes."

"We're just going to have fun.", Tommy replied

"Well I may not spar," Zack started, "but I'm all for going to watch you guys look stupid."

The rest of the boys agreed to go, and they all headed outside to have fun.

* * *

An hour later the party was starting to wind down. The boys had started to trickle back into the house and the girls had broken up their gossip circle and were spread out. Jason and Tommy were the last two to come inside. They quickly surveyed the room. Tommy went to see his girlfriend, who was busy chatting it up with Rocky and Aisha. 

Jason wasn't inclined to join that group as he was looking for his girlfriend. He saw Adam, Tanya and Kat having a conversation as well as three of the original rangers. Finally he caught his girlfriend talking to Carri over on the other side of the room. Jason walked over and draped an arm around each girl's shoulder, before leaning in and giving his girlfriend a kiss.

"What am I, chopped liver?", Carri teased with a smile on her face

Jason laughed and leaned over and gave her an 'I'm being forced to kiss my sister' kiss on the side of the head. She laughed and swept herself out from under his arm. "That's ok, I get all my passion elsewhere."

"What is Jason not good enough for you?", Emily joked as she put her arm around her boyfriend and gave him a light squeeze. "You boys done playing?"

"We weren't playing. We were sparring.", Jason corrected

Emily shrugged. "Same thing."

Jason made a pretend angry face as he leaned in and started to tickle her. He stopped when someone from behind him cleared their throat. "Sorry to interrupt.", Aisha said as she and Rocky approached the trio. "But I'm going to have to get going. It's getting really late in Africa. Or early, depending on how you look at it."

"Well it was nice meeting you.", Emily said smiling at her

"You too.", Aisha replied. "And it was good to see you again Jason, and nice to finally get to talk to you Carri."

Both Jason and Carri said something along the lines of same here as Zack and Trini approached the group. "We really should be getting back too.", Zack said

"Yeah. Billy's going to be in charge of taking care of the cleanup, but we have work early.", Trini said

"Don't worry, we'll help him.", Carri assured her

"Are you guys ready to be getting back?", Billy asked as he walked over

Zack and Trini said yes before saying goodbye to everyone one last time. Aisha said goodbye to the rangers she served with one last time, before giving Adam and Rocky hugs. Then Billy teleported them all back to the Command Chamber so he could get them all home.

"You guys going to stick around for a while?", Rocky asked Adam and Tanya

"Probably not. I have an eight am class tomorrow.", Adam said. "But sometime, when we have time, we'll get together."

"We expect everybody to come back and visit sometime.", Carri said pointing at Adam and Tanya and smiling

"Maybe we can even get the new rangers down here and you guys can meet them too.", Kim added

"That sounds like fun.", Tanya said

Rocky's communicator went off. "Go ahead.", he answered it

"Are Adam and Tanya ready?", Billy asked

"Give us a minute.", Adam said

Quickly he and Tanya started to say their goodbyes. Tanya gave Kat a hug before saying goodbye to the other rangers. Adam had served with everybody there, so he took a minute to say goodbye to each of them, before Billy teleported the duo back home. Everybody left in the room was from California, and everybody in the room stayed to help Billy clean up the Kwan's house.

* * *

Late that night Carri, Jason and Kim were sitting on their couch. Billy had gone back to the Command Chamber to finish something before he went to bed. 

"Well, back one day and already it has been hectic.", Jason said smiling over at Carri

She smiled as she leaned back. "That's the life we lead. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good luck tomorrow with the trial.", Kim said

"Thanks.", Carri replied. "I plan on nailing his ass to the wall."

"Let's just hope Rita, Zedd and Divatox comply long enough for you to get through the trial.", Jason pointed out. Knowing them they would attack while one of the rangers was doing something important. And if it's up to Rita and Zedd, there will be a gavel monster or something stupid like that.

Carri laughed. "If I have to I'll kick the killers ass before coming to kick Goldie's ass. All in a day's work.", she replied

Kim smiled. It was certainly weird, what qualified as a normal day to the Power Rangers. Some shopping, a date, some class work, saving the world... what they considered normal was not normal by anyone else's standards. She looked over at her friend. "Aren't you glad you made it back? You'd be missing all the excitement."

"Well," she started smiling at Jason and Kim, "I will have to say, it is certainly good to be home."

Jason and Kim smiled as they all relaxed and continued to watch the movie on FX. Carri curled up next to her friends as she thought about how nice it was to be able to hang out with everybody again, and to sleep in her own bed. She would even have to admit to missing days like today, where she had to attend class then fight Rito and Goldar and company, help search for a detonator and fight a monster, then capped the day off by hanging with her friends. To others that may not sound like something to look forward to, but to her it was. Sure their little adventure was fun, and they completed a really important mission. And she would even take off again if needed. But in the words of Dorothy, "There's no place like home."

The End


End file.
